Julian Clary On The Audience Participant Who Got Away

As well as walking his Jack Russell/Staffy cross, Albert ("[dogs] make everything seem good in the world"), Julian Clary has spent the last couple of days "writing a voice-over for a Noel Coward documentary". "I live in Noel Coward's old house, and I've always liked him, and it's a great project," Clary enthuses before adding, "And they took me to Jamaica to see the house that he lived in — and indeed [he] died in there — and I met lots of interesting people."

Something you may not know about Clary: he was crowned winner of the British reality television series Celebrity Big Brother in 2012. When asked how he found that experience, the comedian offers, "Well, it's very claustrophobic and it's not particularly pleasant." Clary obviously found a strategy that worked for him, though: "I realised that as long as you do something interesting about twice a day, they will show that in the hour-long summary and the rest of the time you can just sit quietly in a corner. And that's more or less what I did."

"I realised that as long as you do something interesting about twice a day, they will show that in the hour-long summary and the rest of the time you can just sit quietly in a corner."

Clary observes "things come along very unexpectedly" in his career these days and these often wind up being "the best things, really" (such as Celebrity Big Brother, Strictly Come Dancing and "writing children's books"). "You don't have to scheme and plan, I think," he advises. "Just open yourself up to the possibility of things coming your way... When you get to a certain age that's what happens." Given that "he's not trying to get any exposure for any particular reason", Clary tells, "There's a lot of things that I think, 'I'll just pass that by'."

He was in fact approached "to play Mr Humphries" in the reboot of Are You Being Served?. Not tempted? "No, I thought about it, but I thought, 'Ah, no'," he laughs. We discuss this '70s sitcom's un-PC running gags and Clary opines, "You kind of forgive things that, you know, are that old and overlook the content a bit. I don't know, I mean, it may be a triumph."  

If you dread audience participation, you might wanna book a seat towards the back of the theatre for The Joy Of Mincing. "In the current show I only pick three people out [of the audience]," he promises. We can't help but wonder if anyone has ever legged it. "On the tour I did in the UK a couple of months ago, there was one man who was onstage - seemed to be alright - and he said to me, 'I feel I can't handle this,' and he just ran away! He just ran into the wings, out the stage door and was gone [laughs]. Ran for his life."

His history of panic attacks is widely documented and we ask Clary how he's managing these days. "Every now and then, when I least expect it, I get another one just to remind me, for old time's sake," he chuckles. "But, yes, I'm certainly much calmer and happier and things don't really stress me much."